Can Superman Be Cut By A Lightsaber?
The perplexing question fanboys have been asking for decades – can Superman be cut by a lightsaber?
It’s the age old ‘what if’ question that has stumped sci-fi and comic book fans for generations. It has led to heated debates, late night head scratching, endless theorizing and a few fist fights.
If Superman came face-to-face with an enemy yielding a Star Wars lightsaber – could it possibly be used to cut the Man of Steel?
It would be great if we could get some kind of Superman and Star Wars crossover so that it can finally provide us a definitive answer to this. Can’t Zack Snyder and J.J. Abrams team up together to solve this riddle?
I posed this question to my fellow comic book/superhero fan and according to him Supes would easily survive the slicing and dicing of this intergalactic elegant weapon. Even if we’re meant to accept that a lightsaber can cut through anything, it wouldn’t be much of a threat to the Man of Steel.
Hardcore Star Wars geeks will surely know the sophisticated detailed construction of what goes into making a lightsaber much better than I. I’m sure there’s got to be some kind of blueprints that have been written with step-by-step instructions of how to make your own. I’ve never read them though.
When I was little a flashlight and some imagination was all I needed to pretend I was a lightsaber-wielding jedi. Today fans have detailed authentic replicas of the prop lightsabers used in the films! That’s a real step up from a rusty, broken flashlight.
Anyway, I do know lightsabers are created using these specific types of crystals that come in a variety of colors. The kind of crystal you choose to use will determine the color of the light of your saber.
My friend and I determined if you could somehow harness a kryptonite crystal into the making of your lightsaber then it could pose a lethal threat to Superman. If your ‘kryptonite lightsaber’ didn’t manage to get Supes’ super limbs flying off, it surely would cause him great pain when you hit him with it.
Plus, if Supes was further weakened by a lack of sunlight then this combination of weakness and weapon might be your best shot at Kenobi-ing Kal-El.
However, your first hurdle of killing Superman with a lightsaber would be getting close enough to him to use it. The problem with a lightsaber is you have to get within striking distance of your opponent to use it effectively. Jedi’s might be able to run awfully fast, but there’s no way they could keep up with Supes’ super speed. I don’t even think it would be a contest between Superman and a jedi running in a foot race.
Even that prequel nonsense of Yoda throwing his lightsaber at an enemy wouldn’t work too good. There’s no guarantee it would hit its target. How far could anyone throw a lightsaber accurately? Besides, Superman has that super speed and could probably easily avoid a lightsaber being hurled at him.
Using the Force might be able to slow him down though. Which raises another tantalizing question – is the Force magic?
Supes has a weakness against magic, therefore if the Force falls into the magic category it could be used to incapacitate him in someway. We’re told the Force is “an energy field created by all living things. It surrounds us, penetrates us; it binds the galaxy together”. Could there be some magic in there somewhere?
If we define the Force as having some magical properties then perhaps you could wield your mighty Force power at Superman, knock him to the floor and get the jump on him using your kryptonite lightsaber! That Jedi speed we saw demonstrated in The Phantom Menacecould possibly make you fast enough to get the jump on the Man of Steel while he’s trying to get his bearings.
I hate using any of the philosophy or examples of the Star Wars prequels in this analysis. I’m not even going to touch that midichlorians definition that Lucas later came up with and ruined the whole idea of the Force. Microscopic organisms that supposedly speak to us telling us the will of the Force and then the kid was conceived by them or some crap. It makes the Force sound like some germ you need to wash your hands with Purell after touching. If that’s what the Force is you’re better off leaving Superman alone.
Supposedly a lightsaber can cut through anything, except another lightsaber. Basing that idea off the original trilogy I can accept this, but again if we look at George Lucas’ prequels this particular feature of the lightsaber doesn’t really hold.
At the beginning of The Phantom Menace Qui-Gon doesn’t just cut through the big metal door to get to those goofy aliens, he has to melt the big thing gradually having it fall apart. So it’s not so much a hot knife cutting through warm butter, it’s more like a hot wick gradually burning down the wax of a candle.
Superman wouldn’t sit still long enough for anyone to do that to him!
Besides, I always thought of a lightsaber as a permanent laser always at the ready. Superman shoots lasers out of his eyes. He even uses them to shave. So at the most a lightsaber might give him a really fast body wax.
I’m sure there are countless scenarios and arguments fans could make for both sides, but for me I just don’t see Supes being taken down by a lightsaber. It will burn off his clothes, maybe cause him some stinging pain, but I think he could just take that lightsaber and snap it in two.
I would say no, especially after the last few Star Wars films, in which we saw that lightsabers are not instantaneous disintegration rays, but actually take a while to cut through anything harder than human flesh.
As for Kryptonite- it's my theory that that substance cannot actually kill Superman, just weaken him for as long as he is in it's presence. It seems that no matter how long Superman is exposed to Kryptonite, he's fine ten seconds after the exposure has been removed. In the last (god-awful) Superman film, he picks up a freaking continent loaded with the stuff, and while he's badly hurt, he's just fine shortly after.
By the way, I was surprised that you didn't comment on a weird continuity break during your review of Superman II– at one point, Ursa picks up a snake, which bites her. She acts injured and throws the snake to the ground, burning it with her eye lasers. But as she's doing that she's holding her wrist, as if the snake bit actually hurt her.
I remember seeing this in the theater and thinking "wow, bullets and bombs are going to bounce off this chick, but a snake bite hurts?" Later I thought that maybe the military should have just enlisted an army of snakes to take on Zod and his gang….oh well…just thought I'd mention it…
LOL! John that never snakebite thing never occurred to me. Why did that snake biting Ursa hurt her? That doesn't make too much sense.
I have a lot of problems with Superman Returns and a big one was Supes lifting up that mountain of kryptonite. I always figured if he was exposed long enough to kryptonite it would kill him. Just like Lex says in the first movie. Returns didn't seem to adhere to the kryptonite rules as I knew them and had me confused. I kind of ignore that film now. :o)
I don’t believe the kryptonite embedded in the island was true kryptonite. It was synthetic . the only true piece of kryptonite on the island was the shard luthor stabbed superman with. That’s why superman could lift the island. He was exposed to a very inferior form of green k.
I Thought Of Something' You Should Have Like A Video-Segment That Is Dedicated To Those Questions' That Have Been Around Forever For Example 'What Kind Of Animal Is Goofy? Who Would Win A Fight 'Superman' Or 'Batman' Where Did 'The Red Sonja' Get Her Boots' Etc— You Could Put A Rest To All Of Those Questions' Once And For All? BTW–I Think Having A Segment That Talks' About Tv-Shows Turned Into Crappy-Movies Is A Great-Idea. To Be Fair There Have Been 1 Or 2 Them That Were OK I Guess.
Um….Batman is not in Supermans league in a fight. But thats why he keeps a little kryptonite around. So without cheating Superman could just throw Batman to the moon and be done with him. Now that I think about it that would be a funny vid. WTF is Goofy anyway? Wow the more I think about it this is a pretty good idea.
Superman could destroy the entire Star Wars universe because there is no Kryptonite there. Also from Jedi on Lucas has sissified the whole Star Wars concept. Meanwhile Superman in the comics and animated films become quite the badass. So suffice it to say Superman would kick the ass of Jedi, Sith and whatever Jar Jar is.
There Must Be Another Superhero (Male Or Female) That Could Take On Superman In A Fight What About 'Captian Marvel''Captian Marvel-JR. They Would Be Worthy Oppenents For 'Superman' Wouldnt' They?
This is a very intriguing topic, and I’ll preface my statements by saying that most of my experience with Superman ends with the Christopher Reeves’ films, but I would think that a light sabre would only hurt Superman if it was made of kryptonite, which would definitely affect him in some way, even if it just cuts him real bad. Of course, this also depends on what type of light the sabre is made of. If it has the equivalent chemistry to our earth’s sun, then I would imagine it would only make Superman stronger.
As our learned Web master pointed out in his blog entry, magic is the only other thing that can harm Superman, and this topic is very close to my heart. I am a lifelong magic fan, from Samantha on “Bewitched” right up to the trio on “Charmed,” and it’s been my experience that magic rules tend to change from show to show, or from writer to writer, especially in the days before the Internet made getting away with inconsistencies on television a near impossibility. So, with that in mind, I would think if Superman came up against Samantha, her mother, Endora, or even little Tabitha, he wouldn’t stand a chance. Those witches seem omnipotent with very few boundaries. And saying their names backward wouldn’t get Superman off the hook: Those gals ain’t going away that easily. On the other hand, if Superman came up against, say, Jeannie, from “I Dream of…” fame, the fact that she is basically made of smoke, as established by the original series, Superman could easily find a way to trick her back into her bottle and cork her tight inside, or maybe use his eye rays to disseminate her human form back into smoke and possibly blow her back into her bottle with his super-breath? I think the rules of the game would change depending on who is currently writing the show/comic book.